Saturday, August 30, 2008

Das Dutchman Essenhaus is about 15 miles down the road in Middlebury. It is a complex of shops, a hotel (which is a lovely place to stay), and a great restaurant. The restaurant is divided into 2 parts - a family style restaurant and a section where you can order off the menu.

We usually eat in the family style restaurant. For $17 dollars you get all you can eat of salad (they have the best sweet and sour dressing!), homemade bread, drink, chicken, roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, Amish noodles, dressing, green beans...... ummm. The chicken is crispy and juicy and the roast beef is pull apart tender. (It is much better than a Frankenmuth chicken dinner, in my opinion, and you get much more for the money.)

AND dessert is included. A huge list of homemade pies! We usually are so stuffed that we take the pie to go. Here is my cherry pie that I enjoyed for breakfast the next morning.

With full stomachs and a trunk filled with shopping bags, we headed back home again. Sorry it took me nine days to post all this about a trip where we spent only nine hours in Shipshewana. I hope this gives you a little taste of what our typical shop til you drop trip to Amish Indiana is like!

Friday, August 29, 2008

Yoder's is a "modern" department store for things Amish and more. Need a hat, apron, shovel, Amish rocker, or a non-nonelectric kitchen gadget? This is the place to look. They have a mixture of new goods that you'd expect in a store from 30 years ago, and they DO have electricity! It's fun to wander around, but I mostly go to look at the fabric. The fabric used to be significantly cheaper than you'd find anywhere else - now it is similar in price to other places - but they still have a great selection.

I love how they arrange their fat quarter collections in these cute little stars!

And this was my purchase - this book filled with the coolest apron patterns and ideas!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

There are two places I love to go for antiques in Shipshewana. One is in the downtown area, and I don't know the name, so sorry, it wasn't in any of the brochures or online information I checked. It is an old rustic store, it smells a bit musty like an old attic, and has wonderful items that probably DID come from some musty old farmhouse. Some things that caught my attention:

Big box of pictures - one dollar each. I follow some blogger/crafters that I know would do very creative things with these!

I never knew there were so many kinds of oil cans. It made me want to start a collection!

These blocks are so cute! And the floor was such a perfect background!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Two streets north of the main downtown area is Harrison Street which has some darling stores that you don't want to miss.

D'Vine is a store that has recently changed to selling beads and yarn, as well as some garden decor. The highlight of this store is the gorgeous garden in front and behind the store! The new owners have done a lot to really spruce it up!

Next is A Thankful Heart which features all kinds of rustic and primitive decor. No pictures allowed inside, but you can get a little flavor from the outside. I adore their fence, which is made with rustic barnwood and all kinds of clever recycled goods.

The last store also has a new name which I can't remember. More beautiful decorating goods and furniture inside. And the outside was just as cute. Aren't these tin sunflowers darling? They were scattered all over the lawn. Also they had this great rustic bike covered with flowers.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

It's always interesting to wander through downtown Shipshewana. We have some stores that we always visit, and it sometimes we find that they have changed owners and the kind of goods that they sell. Surprise and sometimes disappointment when favorites are no longer there.

I love Lollys! Row after row of lovely quilt fabric, quilt books, patterns, and equipment. Huge selection, although it leans towards more traditional fabric rather than some of the more contemporary designers. Actually, they have 3 stores - one for fabric, one for quilts and homegoods, and a store in the basement with sale fabric. Here are some more pictures I took in the store:

I liked the design and colors on this quilt top!

They have a large section with my favorite - vintage reproduction fabrics.And I always look forward to scrounging around in their boat! Fat quarters for 2 dollars each! Even though I don't have a project in mind, I always come away with at least a dozen.

Monday, August 25, 2008

We usually spend a couple hours at the flea market. We usually give up about half way through the row and rows when it all starts to look the same, and head into town to visit the shops there. We often start at the Davis Mercantile. This used to be an old hotel that had been turned into shops. About 4 years ago there was a terrible fire and the place burned down. (It was so sad, I saw pictures of all the beautiful quilts that were burned!) They built a new building using old fashioned timber framing. Up through the center of the building is this huge tree trunk!

About this time we need some food to keep us going, so typically we get a pretzel from JoJos.

There are 4 floors of shops, but usually I spend most of my time in one place - the quilt shop! Here's a peek through the door - more to come in my next post!

Taking a trip to Shipshewana, Indiana is one of my summer traditions. My friend Jenni and I usually make it there for a shop-til-you-drop day of fun. Sometimes we stay overnight, but this year we went for just one long day. It takes about 3 hours to get there from metro Detroit, so we leave early and return home late. We now have our shopping routine down, and I thought I'd share in a series of shorter posts some of the fun things that we usually do.

Last week we drove down on a Tuesday for my last fling before returning to school. We always go on Tuesday or Wednesday so we can first hit the flea market. Now the flea market is hot, dusty, crowded, row after row of cheap, junky, AND wonderful goods. There used to be more collectables and antiques, and there still are some. Now it has a little bit of everything - household goods, plants, jewelry, tools, rugs, doodads, t-shirts..... We always are amused to find out what the new hot item is at the booths - this year there were a lot of cheap high thread count sheet sets and packages of brightly colored bras 4 for 20 dollars!

I always check out the purses,

and the sunglasses

and the cheap watches (2 for 20 dollars, cheaper than buying new batteries!)

It's always interesting to see the mix of Amish dress, bikes, and buggies along the roads and in the flea market and the shops. (I tried to sneak a few pictures, they don't like having pictures taken.) Here's a picture from the road by the flea market:

In my next post I will share some pictures of my flea market purchases!